‘Unruly’ behaviour reason for shut down of council meeting
A meeting of the Wakefield Community Council was shut down after officials were heckled over the election of a new committee.
Tasman deputy mayor Stuart Bryant said the meeting on August 21 had been getting out of hand, with some outspoken people becoming unruly.
A person who attended said council chair Julian Eggers was interrupted and heckled while reading a statement about last month’s controversial annual general meeting, when a new committee was elected. The witness said rather than asking to speak through the chair as was normal protocol, people were “randomly yelling out stuff”, ending in the meeting being shut down.
“Right from the start they were heckling, and Julian [Eggers, the council chair] was trying to read his report from the AGM ...
“Then they just basically went off in wanting a recount.”
In July Tasman district councillors tallying up votes for the community council’s committee at the annual meeting were accused of fraud after nominees put for
ward by a new faction failed to get elected. The faction was made up of members who had recently joined the council who were upset about plans to build a 5G tower close to a popular pump track, McGazzaland.
Bryant said some of those who attended
were frustrated that they weren’t elected onto the committee.
But he said the behaviour was unfair on the council leaders, particularly as the chair and secretary were relatively young people who were trying to do the best for their community.
“They shouldn't have to tolerate behaviour like that,” he said.
Tasman district councillor Dan Shallcrass said the community council had done great work for 50 years, but had been totally disrupted.
Former district councillor Dean McNamara was put forward as a nominee last month, but was not elected.
He said the atmosphere at the August 21 meeting was a little “tense”. He estimated that around 45 to 50 people attended, around half of whom were upset about the annual meeting vote and the 5G tower.
Putting the tower at the site of the bike park in memory of freeride mountainbike legend Kelly McGarry was “desecration of a memorial”, he said.
McNamara said a motion was put for a voting recount, but he said that Bryant had told the meeting that would be “improper.”
Community council chair Julian Eggers said it had been frustrating being unable to find a middle ground. If it got to the point where they felt unsafe, the council may have to stop having public meetings, he said.
“We want to work with them, but it’s very, very difficult when they act the way they do,” Eggers said.